As angry San Pedro protesters take to streets to oppose shelter, Buscaino stands behind efforts to help homeless

A demonstration Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in San Pedro was peaceful but loud as between 150 and 300 people gathered to protest plans to build a temporary homeless shelter at 515 N. Beacon St. in San Pedro. Photo By Chuck Bennett

Opposition to placing a temporary homeless shelter across the street from San Pedro’s waterfront and near homes exploded in chants and passing car horns Saturday when up to a few hundred demonstrators protested along the port town’s main thoroughfare.

“Enough is enough!” was among the chants that greeted passing motorists, some of whom responded with horn honks and thumbs-up gestures.

Organized and led by the group Saving San Pedro, the demonstration was staged along a block-long stretch of Gaffey Street and lasted about two hours. Demonstrators from both San Pedro and Wilmington, where another shelter is being opposed, took part.

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino. File photo

The late morning gathering came on the heels of a week in which proposals to place temporary shelters under the city of Los Angeles’ A Bridge Home program received increasing criticism and even sparked talk of a recall movement against Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino.

A counter movement now has planned an answer to the protest with a candlelight vigil at the same location at 501 S. Gaffey St. at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, to support “all those who are unhoused and desperately seeking shelter.”

Buscaino supports A Bridge Home and says it is a way to finally address the city’s growing homelessness numbers with a program that would provide temporary shelters and rehabilitative services as permanent housing is constructed throughout the city. The Caltrans park-and-ride lot at 515 N. Beacon St. that his office identified as the possible local shelter site for up to 75 people is undergoing a formal assessment by the city which is expected to issue a report by the end of September.

In a written statement after the demonstration, Buscaino noted that 73 percent of Los Angeles voters approved Measure HHH to build housing for the homeless.

“We simply have two options: allow people to continue living on our sidewalks, or bring them inside and help them achieve a permanent place to live,” Buscaino said in his statement said.

Quietly watching the demonstration from across the street as she waited for a bus was Joy Uzma of San Pedro who said she and her four children lived in a car before getting help to find an apartment in town.

“It’s better for people to have a place to live in,” she said. “Some of them are good people.”

But the crowd Saturday, weary and frustrated after years of seeing sidewalk encampments encroaching into in their hometown where little can seemingly be done legally to control the situation, seems to have reached a breaking point with the latest shelter proposal.

Ire focused on location and councilman

“It’s the location,” said Liz Guardado-Nicosia of San Pedro, noting the prospective site is across the street from the World Cruise Center, the Battleship Iowa and close to downtown San Pedro. “We’re not against homeless people, we’re against vagrants.”

She said discarded drug needles are commonly found at area parks and beaches. Others have complained about public defecation, drug use and crime.

A demonstration Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in San Pedro drew signs on both sides of the debate over building temporary homeless shelters in San Pedro and Wilmington. Photo By Chuck Bennett

Gale Fleury of San Pedro, whose artist studio is across the street from the proposed shelter site, has said an alternative site on Terminal Island, which includes abandon federal buildings and a remodeled commissary, is a much better option. But she’s received no response, she said, from the council office about her suggestion.

Marchers toted signs that read “Wilmington Lives Matter,” “For Sale: San Pedro” and “What about the good people?”

Some signs zeroed in personally on Buscaino with slogans such as “Joe Must Go” and “Bringing it on! Joe needs to be gone!” in reference to a comment Buscaino made Thursday on KFI’s John and Ken talk radio show when the subject of a recall was brought up. “Bring it,” the councilman said in response during his telephone interview.

“He’s not listening to us,” said Simi Seaman of Wilmington who is a leader of a movement in that neighboring community to oppose a shelter proposed for property at 828 Eubank St. “People are mad and people are angry.”

Several hundred people gathered Saturday morning Sept 8, 2018, on Gaffey Street In San Pedro to protest and rally against a proposed homeless shelter being constructed on Beacon Street in San Pedro. Petitions also were available to sign. Photo By Chuck Bennett

Joanne Rallo, the founder of Saving San Pedro, said Saturday’s crowd sent a message, but there would be more efforts to come as residents tracked the shelter debate.

“There are a lot of new faces, this is a new group of people beginning to wake up,” Rallo said.

Buscaino, some critics said, is increasingly being viewed as becoming too political and too closely tied to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in his second term.

“He’s abandoned the very people who got him elected,” said John Stammreich of San Pedro. “Joe is our guy, he’s supposed to be non-partisan.”

“He’s tone deaf, he’s just not listening,” said Xavier Hermosillo of San Pedro said of Buscaino. “He’s not listening to his constituents.”

Buscaino team checks in

Several Buscaino staff members drove by the demonstration, Branimir Kvartuc, the councilman’s director of communications, said later on Saturday.

Kvartuc wasn’t sure, but said he believed the Terminal Island site that Fleury and now many others are proposing was being looked into by a staff member. But he stressed that the councilman is hoping that the 515 N. Beacon Street site is found to be viable because of its proximity to where the homeless population already is.

San Pedro and Wilmington residents gathered Saturday to protest the proposed A Bridge Home temporary shelter sites for the homeless in both communities. Several passing motorists honked and gave a thumbs-up support as they passed by on Gaffey and Fifth streets in San Pedro Several hundred people gathered Saturday morning Sept 8, 2018 on Gaffey St. In San Pedro. Photo By Chuck Bennett

“The whole point of A Bridge Home is to house people where they already are,” Kvartuc said. “How many people are going to elect to go over there (to Terminal Island)? Our mandate is to build (shelters) where they are.”

The selected residents, who will be made up of those homeless who already are in the system and are known to social workers, will remain for about 90 days until they can be moved into permanent housing, Kvartuc said. Until then, he added, they will be kept busy with appointments and other preparations to move into a more stable environment.

Thousands of signatures so far have been collected on petitions opposing the selected sites, however, with critics saying they’re too close to homes, schools and tourist areas. Because the homeless will be free to come and go, they believe it will have a negative impact on local neighborhoods and the waterfront where tourists visit.

“Nazis not welcome” were among signs held by counter demonstrators Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, at a protest against building a temporary homeless shelter in San Pedro. Photo By Chuck Bennett

Counter demonstration

Across Gaffey Street, a small handful of counter demonstrators held their own sings: “No Nazis in San Pedro,” “We Support Joe.”

Among them was Rachel Bruhnke of San Pedro, wearing large peace-sign dangle earrings, who said there had been some good conversations between some participants on both sides as they crossed paths on Saturday.

“I think ‘this’ does,” Bruhnke said, motioning to the few people from the opposing side who had been engaged in what she said was a constructive conversation with her earlier about the issue.

Open house to come

Once the city’s site assessments are released, there will be a formal open house to better explain the program, Kvartuc said, adding that protesters don’t fully understand “what they’re against” yet.

“A Bridge Home will have bathrooms and showers, and have caseworkers helping them everyday at the location until they find permanent housing,” Buscaino’s statement said. “They can even bring their pet. … There will be 24/7 security and residents will not be allowed to loiter anywhere in the neighborhood.”

Kvartuc said some 25 of the Bridge Home shelters have now been proposed throughout the city, with the first one opening Monday near Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles. Three are planned to be within Council District 15, something Buscaino feels is important as all areas within his district share the responsibility.

Valerie Contreras of Wilmington, though, said she and others are adamant that the shelters should not be near homes, businesses or neighborhoods.

“He needs to rethink this,” Contreras said. “Most districts are going to have one shelter and he wants to have three. We are his constituents. The homeless have rights but we have rights, too. … Our message is ‘Enough is enough.’”